The discovery last month of two deer carcasses in the sprawling Rambouillet forest, whose throats showed bite marks and whose backs had been broken and entrails ripped out and eaten, is proof that wolves are active there, said Manoël Atman of the wolf-watching group Alliance avec les loups.

“That is typical of how wolves hunt,” he told the Telegraph.

His group’s network of observers found other evidence, including paw prints and droppings and reports of howling, that a pair of wolves have been living in Rambouillet forest, southwest of Paris, for at least a year.

A lone wolf is also establishing its territory in Essonne, a department south of the capital that officially forms part of the Paris agglomeration, said Mr Atman, whose findings have been backed by another group that monitors the animals’ spread, the Observatoire du loup.

The state hunting and wildlife commission, the ONCFS, admits that given the continuing spread of wolves across France, they will undoubtedly one day end up in the Paris region.